Posts Tagged ‘ The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger ’

“This is the most people we’ve ever played to. That’s fuckin’ awesome” – Sean Ono Lennon

We had nothing but good things to say about The GOASTT’s performance at SXSW this year, and I’m pleased to report that their Mountain Jam debut was even more well-received. If Sean Ono Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl, together with their crack band, didn’t gain some new followers out of the thousands teeming the Hunter Mountain Ski Area on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

The band tore through a set focused primarily on their 2014 release, Midnight Sun, a blast of modern, Beatlesque pop that has taken the band’s sound further in the rock direction than it has ever been. These are perfect songs for this kind of afternoon, with swirling chords and dreamy choruses, all suffused with the sweetness of Ono Lennon’s voice and Kemp Muhl’s harmonies behind them. The set followed the SXSW set fairly closely, kicking off with three of the album’s strongest and hardest-hitting tracks, “Too Deep”, “Xanadu” and “Animals” before hitting a nice mid-set jam of the album’s title track into “Jardin du Luxembourg” from the Le Carotte Bleu EP. By the time The GOASTT closed things out with Syd Barrett’s “Long Gone”, the mountain was full, the sun was high, and hardly anybody wasn’t on their feet. My suspicion is that The GOASTT have many more large audiences in their future.

I recorded this set with MBHO microphones and a high-end EAA PSP-2 preamp on loan from hi and lo. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct downloadlinks or the files on other sites without our permission. Feel free to re-post the Soundcloud links. Please respect our request.

It may be true that not quite all the fans who packed Austin’s Palm Door for the first act of the Northern Spy / Ba Da BingSXSW Showcase knew of the night of incredible experimental and underground music to come. But even if The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (GOASTT), whose unwieldy name hides its punchline well, were a bit better-known, they came humble, and they came hungry, despite a long day of shows already behind them. The band’s main draw is of course the presence of Sean Ono Lennon, who in this setup proves a capable bandleader next to his longtime girlfriend and bassist, the model Charlotte Kemp Muhl.

I watched GOASTT from soundcheck to completion, and what stuck with me most was how good their new music is. There’s a more Beatlesque rock streak to GOASTT tunes like “Too Deep”, “Xanadu” and “Animals” than there was to some of Lennon’s past work on earlier projects, and that felt right. The man’s a natural at writing and performing in that style, and the GOASTT neither over-relied on it — becoming a Beatles cover band — or shied from the family legacy. Ono Lennon and Kemp Muhl bantered gamely between songs, kidding about her Slash-like outfit (with bonus points for the vintage Slaughter shirt), giving the show a relaxed feel that carried forward for the rest of the night.

Along with the almost all-new originals from their forthcoming album Midnight Sun, the GOASTT added two covers, including Syd Barrett’s “Long Gone” and another from Golden Earring. As a five-piece (joined by Jared Samuel on keys, Tim Kuhl on drums and Robbie Mangano on guitar) the GOASTT is vastly more muscular than they sounded on their 2010 Acoustic Sessions release, and that is partly a reflection of their recent opening stints for the Flaming Lips and Tame Impala. Midnight Sun is on its way on April 29 via Chimera Music (note, this link seems to not be working, but you can also pre-order from Insound or Amazon). Many of these songs will be on it. Don’t miss.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from the Palm Door staff, combined with Schoeps MK4V microphones hanging from the optimal position on the floor. The sound quality is quite good, limited only by the rather boomy room. Enjoy!

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.